Kelly Nickels: “It was an amazingly magical time.”

French-born Kelly Nickels is not only a legendary bass player and song writer for various famous US bands, for example Faster Pussycat and L.A. Guns. In recent years, his art has been dedicated to the Montauk Salvage Company, which he founded together with visual artist Scott Hewett, specialized in state of the art computer graphics, custom illustration and fine art painting, plus their own clothing line. This chat, however, is all about music …

When did you become interested in music, Kelly?
When I was about 15, a family friend bought me 3 Albums for my birthday. Aerosmith 1, Kiss Alive 1, and a Black Sabbath record. The Aerosmith record started it all. They looked so damm cool. Always having long hair, I felt that I had found my place in the world. The more I found out about writing songs, recording and touring, I knew it was for me. But really, I was looking for a way to travel the earth. I always knew I wanted to see as much of this amazing planet as I could. And that seemed like a great way to do that… it was!

Any favorite bands?
My favorite bands have always been Aerosmith and The Rolling Stones.

What was it like being in Virgin Steele?
It’s always wild to me that some people ask about this band. I don’t remember much, to be honest. I remember just jamming at the guys house a few times but I was not very good. I had just started playing.

How did you meet those guys?
I don’t really remember, but it would have to have been through an ad in some local music paper.
I think!

Next you joined Sweet Pain. Tell us more about this.
My friend Micheal Corcione was working for an independent record/distributor company called Combat Records on Long Island. Imports were really big back then. A lot of metal bands coming from Europe and stuff. So somehow he got them or they got him to start a band and they said they would put the record out, so we auditioned a few people and found a good drummer and a guitar player but, we could not find a singer. We auditioned a handful and they were terrible, so Michael decided he would be the singer. We were heavily influenced by Hanoi Rocks but that’s as far as it went, lol.

How did you meet the other members of LA Guns in 1987?
I met Tracii in 1985 at the Rainbow walking past him. We were admiring each other’s tattoos. It was in the very early days of tattoos so he had one and I had one and we started talking and would see each other around sometimes and then I met Mick. They were already friends so it all just kind of fell into place.

Could you tell us what inspired you to write “The Ballad of Jayne”?
Well The Ballad of Jayne was the last song recorded for the Cocked & Loaded album. Mick and I had written the music and Phil had done some scratch vocals and lyrics on it that I wasn’t really digging and I asked him, Phil, if he minded that I would take it home and try to come up with something else for it. He was fine with it. We only had one day left in the studio, so I took it home that night. I was single at the time living in an apartment off of Melrose Avenue in LA and I had the Playboy channel on. There was a special about Jayne Mansfield and they were interviewing one of her ex-husband‘s Mickey Hargitay.
And he was talking about Jayne and was still visibly upset. You know like 50 years later or something he was still hurt by her loss. I was moved by that and realized that some things you never get over in life, you just have to learn to live with it. I really made it for anyone who’s lost someone. She’s everybody’s Jayne.

What were the recording sessions like for the first LA Guns album and later “Cocked and Loaded”?
It was an amazingly magical time. We were so happy to finally have a record deal and be able to go into the studio to record. We enjoyed every minute of it. It was a dream come true. It was years worth of work, going to auditions, trying to find a band with the same vision and get a record deal, it’s not that easy. So when it all came together, we loved it. PolyGram signed us to a seven album deal and I remember thinking at least I’ll be able to eat for a few years.

Later you left LA Guns and rejoined at a later time. What was it like being away from music for a while, after a tragic motorcycle accident?
Well, my accident happened before I was in L.A. Guns, while I was in Faster Pussycat. So I had to deal with it the whole time I was in L.A. Guns. And that was a real drag. I refractured it a couple of times on stage. I was on a cane and crutches for six years and had 10 major surgeries. It was not much fun at all. I pretty much went through my whole musical career with busted leg. The night Faster Pussycat got a record deal I was hit by a car and ended up in the hospital for about three months. They needed to go into the studio and record their record and since I was unable to do that, they had to let me go. Which I understood but, after trying to find a good band for years and to finally get a record deal, to be let go was pretty devastating. I didn’t know what would happen after that. When I got out of the hospital, I flew back home to New York. A few days later I got a call from Tracii Guns and he asked me to join the band. I said I have a cast all the way up to my butt, and he said “you’ll heal”. So I got on a plane and flew back to LA and started rehearsing with them. And I’ve always been grateful for a second shot at it.

What are you doing now?
For the last few years, I’ve been playing in Riley‘s L.A. Guns and that has been a lot of fun. We have put out two albums and played some shows. I have been doing graphic design work for the last 20 years. I do all the art for Riley’s L.A.Guns.
Any remembrances of Steve Riley?
Losing Steve last year has been a great loss, but we had a lot of fun together and I have nothing but great memories with him. He was a super fun guy to be in a band with and an excellent drummer.
We always got along really well. Before every show, we would sneak off somewhere and smoke a joint together, what more can I say? lol 🙂🍺

Interview: John Wisniewski    photos: Kelly Nickels